A little background: I'm a "schedule" type of girl. I like to know the who, what, where, and when. And, frankly... I wanted to know it yesterday. We did not take Seth and Sara with us to China. So, our two week trip required a lot of planning and organizing. I may have gone a little over-the-top with the organizing part as I constructed a 35 page wire bound book for our friends/family that included: a daily schedule of events (both theirs and ours). Maps to school. Maps to the store. Bus schedules. Emergency phone numbers. Airline travel info. And even adoption related reading material on china's orphanages and adoption. Frankly, I was pretty proud of my book. It was even color-coded! As you can imagine, I got significant amount of grief from my family regarding my "book" and my OCD ! But darn-it, everyone knew what was going on every second of every day. So, what does this have to do with being flexible..??
Well, our entire China adventure has been an "exercise" in flexibility. First, we were planning to travel in late August. Then, we got 'surprised' with an early LOA ...and our agency wanted us to travel in July. We re-arranged, re-scheduled, packed and planned (and I stressed ) while we waited for our final TA. And, waited some more. Five days before our anticipated departure date, our TA still hadn't arrived. I was stressed out of my mind! But, we finally conceded that our travel wasn't gonna happen until August. So, we replanned,re-arranged, and re-organized again. I guess its also important to mention that both Dan and I work full-time. So, our employers are to be thanked tremendously for their flexibility with our ever-changing travel plans.
Well, we finally made it to China in late August. And nearly everything happened 'on-schedule'. Everything occurred as I expected... Until we got home. A simple VSD turned into DORV and a shlew of other things. Surgery was scheduled. Then changed. Then changed again. Cancelled. And then finally re-scheduled for this past Tuesday. Of course, every change required 10 kabillion phone calls to re-organize our family's schedule! Now, here we are.. Day 4. We are supposed to be 'in house' for about a week and up to 14 days. Tomorrow is Sara's 3rd birthday. Tomorrow, my girlfriends (that I haven't seen in months) are coming to the hospital for lunch. Tomorrow is a busy day, but I've got it all worked out. Four hours ago, they told us that we will probably go home tomorrow. Change of plans everyone. No lunch with girls. No balloons and cake at the hospital. Re-arrange. Re-plan. Prepare for discharge on Saturday. That was four hours ago. And, four minutes ago, they changed their mind. Probably home on Sunday. Sigh. I'm glad that I didn't make a "book" this time.
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B-R-E-A-T-H-E. I thought I was crazy busy!! If it's any consolation, I would have loved your book. I can NEVER have too much information! I can't believe you are even up for consideration to go home! Technology today is AMAZING!!!
ReplyDeleteCiara and I are sitting reading our email and posts, lol, and I'm laughing telling her, "That crazy need to be prepared Lori, she needs to chill out!" After spending nearly two weeks with you makes it all the more funny to me, you are probably tearing your hair out. You need to come to the farm where everything is chaotic and so not on schedule it's not funny! lol S
ReplyDeleteSeriously though, that maybe today, no tomorrow or the next stay stuff would drive me bonkers.
Lori...we were separated at birth! I tell you that I am EXACTLY the same way. Our trip to China for Katie, while I didn't spiral bound the book (GREAT IDEA!!!!) I think it was close to 35 pages. I even had a calendar with stickers for countdown, and special days marked.
ReplyDeleteOur trips to Disney? That is laid out in a 20 page document with all the details, with a "plan" for each day and plan for park touring. Not spiral bound (but oh thanks for that idea!!!) but I do have the master copy on paper, a back up on the computer, pages shrinked down to 3x5 for notecards that are bound on a ring to carry into the parks, notes on hidden Mickeys, pages of "educational" stuff for the kids while waiting (coded for which restaurant so that they fit a theme).
I can feel the frustration of wondering when you'll be going home, and the changing of minds...and oh....I feel the pain of it! {HUG}
BTW, have you figured out I have 2 blogs, that I'm from RQ, and we just got PA on our little girl with all the questions in the file on a seemingly simple PDA? That's me, as is Snapshot with the wordpress blog. LOL